I have a couple of questions that I'm sure have been asked before but I've been unable to find an answer to my satisfaction so I thought I'd ask here, seeing as there seems to be a fair spread of experience on these forums. Just a quick background for a bit of perspective :)

My main training was first in Thai boxing then Wing Chun, and I loved the hard training, conditioning (except the shins... nobody likes conditioning the shins!) and effectiveness of both arts. Then I injured my back and hips and I had to kiss the high impact arts goodbye. However before I started Thai boxing I had the opportunity to train with an Aikido instructor for a few short weeks and I was very impressed with what I experienced.

Fast forward ten or so years and I am going to take up the training that I was too aggressive to enjoy back then.

The Aikido club that interests me and is very convenient shift-wise is Yuishinkai but the instructor I trained briefly with was from the Kokikai. When I research the various systems there is a lot about the history of the masters of the lineages of Aikido but very little as to the training methodology and effectiveness of the systems.

I am not taking up Aikido to learn how to fight. I already have a fairly good grip on that and punching on with unpleasant people has to be one of the least intelligent activities I can imagine.

However I am also not interested in learning how to dance wearing a gi and my fiancée wants to learn Aikido. For me its very important that what she is learning is actually useful should bad go to worse and things get physical. She has taken a couple of Krav Maga courses but she finds Aikido very interesting.

I guess what I'm asking is does anyone here have experience of Yuishinkai and if so do you think that it matches the needs I've written above? Or any other opinions (based on experience) that you think would be useful I'd appreciate hearing them.

Long post for a short question!

Thanks.

Pauliina Lievonen

04-11-2012, 05:02 AM

IMO it depends a lot on the instructor of the particular club you're interested in. I wouldn't recommend aikido to anyone as their only means of self defense though, so if that is your girlfriends goal then she should look for other thing to add to the mix. And if she does train other things then how effective the aikido at that particular club is is somewhat less critically important... though persobally it would bug me if I thought what I was taught was completely silly. There's a spectrum between silly and deadly though. :D

Sounds like you have enough experience to judge for yourself really. I'd say visit all the clubs that are within reasonable distance, it might be that the next to nearest one is a perfect fit for example.

Pauliina

Mario Tobias

04-11-2012, 06:08 AM

The affiliation should only be secondary. IMHO you should be seeking a very competent instructor at first. How to determine the level of an instructor is part of the challenge. Sometimes you get lucky that you can trace the lineage of an instructor but oftentimes it's difficult. It takes due diligence to find these things out.

Gorgeous George

04-11-2012, 09:48 AM

Hi,

I have a couple of questions that I'm sure have been asked before but I've been unable to find an answer to my satisfaction so I thought I'd ask here, seeing as there seems to be a fair spread of experience on these forums. Just a quick background for a bit of perspective :)

My main training was first in Thai boxing then Wing Chun, and I loved the hard training, conditioning (except the shins... nobody likes conditioning the shins!) and effectiveness of both arts. Then I injured my back and hips and I had to kiss the high impact arts goodbye. However before I started Thai boxing I had the opportunity to train with an Aikido instructor for a few short weeks and I was very impressed with what I experienced.

Fast forward ten or so years and I am going to take up the training that I was too aggressive to enjoy back then.

The Aikido club that interests me and is very convenient shift-wise is Yuishinkai but the instructor I trained briefly with was from the Kokikai. When I research the various systems there is a lot about the history of the masters of the lineages of Aikido but very little as to the training methodology and effectiveness of the systems.

I am not taking up Aikido to learn how to fight. I already have a fairly good grip on that and punching on with unpleasant people has to be one of the least intelligent activities I can imagine.

However I am also not interested in learning how to dance wearing a gi and my fiancée wants to learn Aikido. For me its very important that what she is learning is actually useful should bad go to worse and things get physical. She has taken a couple of Krav Maga courses but she finds Aikido very interesting.

I guess what I'm asking is does anyone here have experience of Yuishinkai and if so do you think that it matches the needs I've written above? Or any other opinions (based on experience) that you think would be useful I'd appreciate hearing them.

Long post for a short question!

Thanks.

You should not train aikido as a form of self-defence, in my opinion/experience.
In terms of self-defence - especially for a woman - i'd say Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, or perhaps judo: getting used to live, resisting people is such an important part of learning a martial art, I think; then there's the fact that aikido techniques were intended to be used in a context where weapons were involved - a rarity in most societies, nowadays.

You've got experience in Muay Thai, so you may well have the mindest to understand how to move in aikido, to actually be effective in a practical sense - but whether that's what you'll be taught, is another matter.
Does this look legitimate?:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JB0-RCrKNc

When you did Muay Thai, did people execute punches that left them over-committed, and horribly off-balanced?

Does the Yuishinkai teach anything worth knowing in a self-defence situation - or is it dancing around in pleated trousers...?

http://youtu.be/-64V3iQCoOs?t=55s

I'd check out BJJ for self-defence, and a better style of aikido for, er, aikido.
There's an Alliance BJJ school in Brisbane:

http://bjjalliance.com.au/

Good luck.

lbb

04-11-2012, 10:21 AM

H
However I am also not interested in learning how to dance wearing a gi and my fiancée wants to learn Aikido. For me its very important that what she is learning is actually useful should bad go to worse and things get physical. She has taken a couple of Krav Maga courses but she finds Aikido very interesting.

This probably won't be well received, but statistically, your fiancee is more at risk for an attack by you than she is by whatever hypothetical attacker you're imagining when you start looking for a martial art for her to train in. That's not a reflection on you, but on the fact that the usual threat to a middle-class woman in a western industrialized country is from someone she trusts or knows in a non-threat environment, not from the stereotypical "street attack". Technique matters, sure, but recognizing a threatening situation -- a real one, not something out of a movie -- matters more. So does knowing the full range of ways of dealing with it, only a very few of which involve physical self-defense. So, by all means, evaluate whatever dojos you look at for whether what they're doing is martially effective -- but if self-defense is what you're concerned about (as opposed to fantasy scenarios out of bad movies), an honest approach begins and ends outside the dojo -- any dojo.

Pauliina Lievonen

04-11-2012, 10:52 AM

What Mary said.

BTW, in an idle moment I googled aikido in Brisbane and came across this: http://www.yoshinkan.info/index.php?pageID=Home

That dojo would be worth checking out at least, I think.

Pauliina

Alex Megann

04-11-2012, 11:23 AM

What Mary said.

BTW, in an idle moment I googled aikido in Brisbane and came across this: http://www.yoshinkan.info/index.php?pageID=Home

That dojo would be worth checking out at least, I think.

Pauliina

I like the clip of the demonstration by Mori Sensei. He is deceptively young-looking, though - he is the first genuine aikido 7th Dan I have ever seen who looks like a schoolkid! He was born in 1966, believe it or not...

If you are in Brisbane, you could also try the Brisbane Aikikai (http://aikidobrisbane.org/).

Alex

Gorgeous George

04-11-2012, 01:11 PM

I like the clip of the demonstration by Mori Sensei. He is deceptively young-looking, though - he is the first genuine aikido 7th Dan I have ever seen who looks like a schoolkid! He was born in 1966, believe it or not...

If you are in Brisbane, you could also try the Brisbane Aikikai (http://aikidobrisbane.org/).

Alex

He has very impressive aikido.
TS: go there - please go there; what luck that he's teaching so near to you.

And as opposed to others, I don't think there's any doubt he's legitimate.

Pauliina Lievonen

04-11-2012, 03:38 PM

If you are in Brisbane, you could also try the Brisbane Aikikai (http://aikidobrisbane.org/).
Well, just an opinion based on a couple videos on the respective websites - but I'd still go to visit the Yoshinkan dojo first... It just looks like they do the typical Aikikai stuff with lots of extension but little connection to uke.

Pauliina

Mary Eastland

04-11-2012, 03:45 PM

I think studying Aikido has helped me. I have learned self-defense inside and out. To feel safe at first I studied self-defense as well as Aikido for quite a while. Aikido training affords me the possiblilty to look at every choice I make in a new light.

A thought about Mary M's statistic about the person you are intending to marry. If your relationship is violent she is in more danger than other people. However, if your relationship is not violent she is not in as much danger.

Women and children are generally hurt by people they know instead of strangers. But the quality of relationship is a factor that makes a difference in the statistic.

robin_jet_alt

04-11-2012, 06:28 PM

I am doing Yuishinkai at the moment. I have previously done 3 other styles of Aikido including mainstream Aikikai and Nishio-style. The reason I chose Yuishinkai was not because of the organisation or the syllabus, but because of the teacher at my dojo. I don't think any of us can really tell you anything about that dojo without knowing the sensei you would be training with.

I also like what I saw on the Yoshinkan clip. That would be worth checking out as well if it is convenient.

By the way, Daniel James teaches Yuishinkai in Brisbane and is on these forums. You might want to send him a PM>

gregstec

04-11-2012, 06:28 PM

Koretoshi Maruyama is the founder of the Yuishinkai - he was a soto deshi at hombu and was Tohei's first chief instructor of the Ki Society - more info on him and the Yuishinkai can be found on the Yuishinkai web site - his basic principle is 'we are fundamentally mind'; which I like since we all know the mind leads the body. I trained with him back in the mid 70s when his was with the early Ki Society and he is very soft and very centered. His group will help you with getting a coordinated mind and body, but IMO, they do not go farther into development of internal skills and have a focus on large external movements; which are not necessarily bad for training timing and other external stuff, but I don't see that as martially effective at a beginners level.

If you are just looking for simple self defense, I don't think any Aikido system is the way to go. However, if you are looking to get into a program that might help you develop an awareness of ki, then the Yuishinkai may not be a bad place to start.

Greg

Alex Megann

04-12-2012, 07:33 AM

Well, just an opinion based on a couple videos on the respective websites - but I'd still go to visit the Yoshinkan dojo first... It just looks like they do the typical Aikikai stuff with lots of extension but little connection to uke.

Pauliina

Never trained there and I have no comment on their aikido. But... an old friend and former student is a member, and one of their teachers is a dojo-mate of mine from when I first started aikido thirty years or more ago, so I felt obliged...

As I said, I liked what I saw of Mori Sensei (though since he and my own teacher were both students of Shioda Sensei I might be a little biased).

Alex

lbb

04-12-2012, 07:44 AM

Women and children are generally hurt by people they know instead of strangers. But the quality of relationship is a factor that makes a difference in the statistic.

It doesn't make a difference in the statistic. It makes a difference in your individual situation.

Vvarg

04-12-2012, 07:38 PM

Thanks everyone for the information!

I'm going to take the Yoshinkan introductory course as that seems to fit what I had in mind, and it will give me the chance to see how my injuries handle it before joining and committing.